Sport in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's schools and colleges regularly organize sports and athletics teams, competing on provincial and national levels.

[5] After qualifying to play in the finals of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Sri Lanka was beaten by India.

[6] The legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan also ended his incredible career at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai which hosted the 2011 World Cup finals.

Water sports such as boating, surfing, swimming and scuba diving on the coast, the beaches and backwaters attract many Sri Lankans and foreign tourists.

Some of the traditional sports in Sri Lanka include Kabaddi, Gillidanda (proto-cricket), Kili thadthu, Kanna muchi, Chak-gudu, Thenkai addi and Elle.

Games such as Kotta Pora (Pillow fight), Ankeliya (tugging the horn), Kana mutti bindeema (breaking pots), Porapol Gaseema, Lissana gaha nageema (climbing the greasy pole), Banis Kaema (bun eating contest) and Gudu Keliya are played during Avurudu, the Sinhalese New Year.

[11] Sri Lanka took part in the 1960 netball meeting of Commonwealth countries to try to standardize the rules for the game.

Despite not performing well on the international stage, Sri Lanka is sometimes considered one of the rugby's success stories, with crowds of forty or fifty thousand turning out for club games.

Problems with the development of rugby in Sri Lanka have been threefold - first, a lack of finance, second, third world infrastructure, and third, the country has been war torn for a number of years.

[17] However the sport in being discussed how best to promote it in Sri Lanka when a group of AFL officials met with the country's Minister of Internal Trade and Cooperatives, Johnston Fernando in 2010.

Manel Dharmakeerthie and Milton Amarasinghe, a former Director General of Sports, are working together to develop Australian football in Sri Lanka.

[19] The Colombo Lions, like all EFLI teams, will play their entire first season in Pune, India, but the games are slated for broadcast in Sri Lanka.

The US Embassy to introduced the game to Sri Lanka on the request of former Minister Hon, Festus Perera.

In the beginning the US Embassy staff played friendly baseball games with the local teams at Havelock Park, Colombo.

Sri Lanka secured a position to compete in the first ever and the team's first ever tournament the Asian Baseball Cup, which was held in the Philippines in 1995.

[20] The Sri Lanka Amateur Baseball Softball Association is also planning to introduce Baseball5 to the 13,000 schools in the country.

But the likes of Lucion Pushparaj, has pushed the sport to the global stage, having competed in the Mr Olympia.

Several Sri Lankan powerlifters, both men and women, have managed to excel and push the sport to international levels.